Mississippi coastline gets another reprieve from massive oil spill

View full size(AP Photo/David Quinn)A crew from the U.S. environmental service form a line before walking the beach in search of debris and dead marine wildlife in Long Beach, Miss., Monday, May 3, 2010. Mississippi got another reprieve from the oil slick in the Gulf Monday.The Mississippi coastline got another day's reprieve from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, with officials now saying no oil will come ashore through Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, BP PLC officials said they were continuing to take steps to stem the tide of crude coming from the Deepwater Horizon well.

The company also gave Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida $25 million each so the states have cash in hand to pay cleanup workers and mitigation efforts, said Doug Suttles, the petroleum giant's chief operating officer of exploration and production.

The company has said it will ultimately reimburse state, local and federal governments for "all necessary and appropriate cleanup costs."

To see updated projection maps related to the oil spill in the Gulf, visit the Deepwater Horizon Response Web site established by government officials.

How to help: Volunteers eager to help cope with the spill and lessen its impact on the Gulf Coast environment and economy.

HOW YOU CAN HELP will appear daily in The MIssissippi Press until there is no longer a need for volunteers in response to the oil spill disaster. If you have suggestions for a story, or if you belong to an organization in need of such help, please call Mississippi Press Editor Gareth Clary at 228-934-1429 or email him at gclary@themississippipress.com.

At least 210,000 gallons of oil a day is escaping a BP-owned well that was damaged when the deepwater drilling rig exploded last month. Eleven crew members died, and the spill is evolving into what many fear could be an ecological disaster along one of the most environmentally sensitive coastlines in the country.

BP worked Monday to place a valve over one of three leaks. Suttles said the company would know by today if that worked.

BP is also preparing to install custom-built containment centers over each leak. The 125-ton structures would cover the leaks, collecting oil that could then be pumped to a barge on the surface.

Similar efforts have worked, but such a system has not been used at the 5,000-foot depths in play with the current spill. The system could contain 85 percent of the leaking oil, and will take about a week to put in place, Suttles said.

Suttles said he was also hopeful that dispersants being applied underwater are breaking up the oil before it reaches the surface. Suttles said the company would have a better idea of how well it's working once new fly-over imagery is available. Bad weather has been hampering image collection.

Workers also continued drilling one of two relief wells -- the ultimate answer to shutting down the flow of oil. But Suttles said any new well would take two or three months to reach the 18,000-foot depth required.

A BP official in Mobile briefly gave cause for hope Monday morning when he said the company had significantly reduced the flow of oil by shutting a set of hydraulic shears known as annular rams.

But Suttles later said that employee was wrong, that the flow had not been reduced.

Mike Chaney, Mississippi insurance commissioner, said Monday that he is "pretty confident" that property owners who make legitimate claims related to the spill will receive what they're owed. That's because there is $1.7 billion in a fund established as part of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, that will kick in should BP funds be exhausted, he said.

View full size(Press-Register/G.M. Andrews) Boats position oil booms in preparation of the arrival of an oil slick Friday, April 30, 2010, off the beach in Ocean Springs, Miss. The casinos of Biloxi are seen in the distance. Chaney, along with Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, arrived in south Mississippi early Monday to assess potential damage, as well as BP's response and state officials' role.

He said BP and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency are among those who set up hotlines to answer oil-spill questions.

"We've got some pretty good assurances of where things are headed and what's being done to contain the oil spill and where everybody fits into the picture," Chaney said. "We're learning what will happen if there is damage to beaches and public and private property and how (the damages) will be addressed."

Chaney said tornado, flood and now potential oil spill damage have made it a busy past few weeks for the department.

Until it reaches shore, the spill falls under the Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Marine Resources. MEMA, as well as the insurance department, become involved only if it reaches shore.

"I don't think it's as much of a danger to the coastline and marine life as we first thought it was," Chaney said. "I think they're going to contain it in the next several days, probably by Sunday."